Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Prosepect Mountain snowshoe

My back (SI joint) has been feeling pretty lousy for about a month so I’ve curtailed my racing.I haven’t cut back on my training and I’m logging between 90-100 miles per week.I decided to test things out with a shorter snowshoe race at ProspectMountain.The “I Love Woodford” race had insurance issue but Bob Dion and Tim Van Orden stepped up and put on a great race at ProspectMountain which is only a few miles further down the road.

I went up to Montpelier the day before and hung out with Eric and Murdoch, getting in a nice run around the capital on the packed snow trails behind the state house.On Sunday morning I was greeted to a few inches of snow and the first 60 miles of driving was a bit nerve wracking.150 miles and 3 hours later I arrived at the Prospect Mountain XC ski area.They have a great set up with indoor facilities, a major bonus for WMAC snowshoe races!

I got to the race 2 hours early and headed out with Tim and a few other helpful souls to set the course.We didn’t have enough flagging and by 2 miles we were nearly out, so TiVO decided to modify the course at the end.This knocked the distance down from 3.1 miles to 2.6 miles.There was a fair amount of climb and even some stretches of powder (2-3’ deep) which would challenge everyone.I don’t think anyone complained that we ran ½ mile less than advertised.After an hour of marking the course I got another ½ mile in then changed into my racing gear.I headed out for another 1.5 miles to get loose and felt reasonably good.The field was pretty strong with Tim jumping in despite the pressures of race directing, Josh Ferenc showed up although he was just coming back from a long illness.Jeremy Drowne (a top NY snowshoe racer) and Steve Dowsett (who won the Turner snowshoe race the day before) made for a solid group.

I’m glad I previewed the course; it would have been a lot harder if you didn’t know how much climb you had and when you’d get a break.Josh took it out on the first downhill and I went with Jeremy as we started the first little climb.I made a bigger move on the first long-ish climb and found myself pulling away.I was a bit nervous about getting in the lead that early as there would be some tough powder that would be better met as the second or third person through.I also knew my strength would be the climbing and the other guys would close on the downhill sections and the groomed trails.I pushed as hard as I could throughout.With about ½ mile to go I checked and couldn’t see second place. I kept the tempo as fast as I could and crossed the line in first for my first victory of 2013 and my first WMAC series race win since March of 2011.

Hopefully my SI will not be screaming at me because I’m looking forward to a full snowshoe calendar this year!